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CHAPTER 23
Rin and Tobirama could barely be seen, yet the impact of their blows cracked like thunder.
Tobirama smashed a punch into Rin's cheek, and the girl spun with the heavy blow, snapping her heel into the man's neck and then pulled back her leg when Tobirama swiped at her ankle with his sword.
She stepped away in a blur of light and the man stepped forward, both hands holding the handle of his sword and an unnerving focus in his eyes. Afterimages raced in his wake as he blazed to her, cutting the distance in a nanosecond. Rin sucked in her gut and moved aside from the stab to her abdomen, missing the electrified blade by an inch as it nearly scraped the stomach of her jounin vest, quickly returning the favour with a knee to Tobirama's right wrist and an elbow to his face, hardly leaning away from a back fist from that broken right hand.
The air tingled and Rin gnashed her teeth as time crawled.
She was stuck in that position, leaning away from Tobirama's back fist after dealing him with an elbow. Nothing on the battlefield moved.
The leaves falling from the trees stopped.
Itachi and Gengetsu Hozuki were locked in a battle of water jutsu against water jutsu, frozen in time and utterly focused on their opponent.
The L&I ninjas were rallying around Zabuza. The bandages around the undead man's mouth had come undone to reveal the grating teeth underneath as his muscles tensed, slicing his giant sword against an Inuzuka beast transformation.
Space-Time Ninjutsu, the girl exclaimed in her head. It wasn't like her father's Space-Time Ninjutsu. This one was older and much less polished, but not less efficient.
Time stopped, but Rin's eyes twitched left and right.
Tobirama's voice echoed in the stillness of time, "Forgive me, child."
Her senses flared—
Then Tobirama, a different one, flickered into existence behind the girl and plunged his sword into her lower back.
Half an inch into her back, the girl bellowed and the jutsu shuddered. Time restarted at a trickling pace and Tobirama, shocked, now found himself steadily pushing his sword deeper into the girl's back.
The girl pushed hard on her bloodline.
She strained her chakra to fire to her brain and her extremities.
A pair of golden wings bloomed at Rin's back and she vanished.
The heavens opened in that frozen world, and Tobirama marvelled at the sight; the sun poured warmth down to the earth and the colours of the world sparkled in cleaner detail. A deeper crack formed on Tobirama's chest and he inhaled shakily, looking up into the sky when Rin finally reappeared.
Her large, ethereal chakra wings were spread wide, encompassing a large portion of the sky and blotting out the sun. Her shinobi uniform was damaged and a large blood stain dirtied the lower left side of her stomach.
Her blue eyes were now beamed yellow with light.
The Angel of Konoha shared a pleasant smile with the undead Hokage.
"To equal my Space-Time ninjutsu," The man uttered, amazed, "Namikaze standards have truly improved."
This all happened within a quarter of a second.
Rin flapped her chakra wings once and was gone as if she had never been there, and time moved again; the fighting around began with a frenzy, as well as the snap of broken trees—
A hand burst into Tobirama's face and exploded out of the back of his head, destroying the talisman implanted in his brain that controlled his restraints.
The hand yanked out of Tobirama's head and the Hokage fell to his knees.
Rin panted, keeping her mouth tightly shut as her nose raggedly exhaled, nursing the hole in her stomach where Tobirama's sword had exited from her body. The wound had been cauterized by the electricity, but she was fairly sure something was severely damaged inside her. Her yellow eyes gradually dulled back to electric blue, closing one as she fought for breath.
She didn't want to find out which internal organs were damaged.
She truly didn't.
"His name is Kabuto and he's hiding somewhere in Grass country, constantly on the move by orders of that Mizukage," Tobirama said, his mouth steadily mending for him to leak as much information as possible. He didn't move from his knees, as much as Kabuto remotely ordered him to. "Even now, he's pushing me to get up. The talisman implanted in my brain, and the brains of other remarkable shinobi was to better control us. Without it, he cannot dream to control us. At least, not anyone higher than S rank."
Rin squatted to Tobirama's height, a pained expression on her face as she peered at him. "Kabuto…Kabuto…the name's familiar…" The man gave the girl time to come up with a mental image, and the girl's brow furrowed. "Chunin Exams. Orochimaru's lackey."
Naruto had captured him after he had lost his match in the Chunin Exams and interrogated him for knowledge of Orochimaru's invasion.
Rin's eyes narrowed with seriousness and she nodded. "Got it."
"The jutsu that boy is using is Impure World Resurrection. It's…one of mine." The man breathed out and the girl got to her feet, holding her hand out to the Hokage and helping him up. "This jutsu is far more refined than my technique, and it has been used on a far larger scale."
"How much larger?"
"I saw up to two hundred shinobi in Grass country. And that isn't accounting for other warehouses," Tobirama answered.
"Is there any counterseal?"
"Not to my knowledge, no."
Their best bet, until the Logistics and Intelligence department come up with something else, was to directly go after Kabuto. With how the undead regenerated, they could only really push them away from Konoha until Kabuto was gone.
"This is going to be a pain," Rin groaned, rubbing her eyes.
"…Who…is the current Hokage?" Tobirama slowly asked.
Here, Rin smirked wryly, proud. "My brother, Naruto."
Then a storm of praying mantis exploded from the forest around them, converging on Gengetsu Hozuki and Zabuza, feasting on them in a drone of humming and buzzing. Itachi and the L&I ninjas backed away from the ravenous summons. The cloud of praying mantis that swarmed them lifted the yelling undead men into the air and carried them away, constantly gnawing and eating them, even as the undead regenerated.
Frantically swiping at the air did nothing to unlatch the praying mantis summons from their skin, and killing one only seemed to enrage the rest, who buzzed louder and angrier.
"They can tell allies apart from enemies, thank goodness," Naruto spoke in a breathy tone, referring to his manic praying mantis summons.
Even as the summons had a strict and lawful civilization in their summoning realm, they didn't consider any outsider besides their summoner worth mercy once they were summoned.
Red mist oozed out from the trees and the Hokage strolled to his sister, his sharingan deactivated as he said, "That should keep Yagura's forces away for a little while."
He reached his sister and the girl hooked her left arm around Naruto's right arm, drawing him closer. His critical eyes easily spotted the stab wound in his sister's stomach and his expression darkened. Before he could say anything, Rin motioned to the curiously spectating other Hokage. "Naruto, meet Lord Tobirama Senju." The girl pridefully puffed out her chest, telling her brother, "We're basically best friends at this point."
"Is that so?" Naruto said with a jokingly raised eyebrow, bowing slightly to the other Hokage. "Lord Second, it's an honour to meet you." The man returned the bow, carefully observing the boy as he said, "My father is a big fan of your work. He would have loved to meet you, and ask you some questions on your Flying Thunder god technique."
"Well, where is he? I would gladly answer his question." Tobirama looked around as if expecting another Namikaze to make a similar dramatic entrance as the boy. When his eyes turned back to the siblings, he saw that their faces were marred by dread.
"He's…" Naruto started, not sure how to continue.
"He's not feeling well," Rin stepped in to help, delicately describing their father's critical condition. Tobirama stared without speaking, so the girl waved his questions away. "It's a difficult story."
Naruto's lips screwed down and he didn't opt to say anything more about that, instead, he turned to the L&I ninjas that were kneeling at his back and a weary Itachi, who was silently observing from the sidelines. "Have you been able to gather any intel?"
The Inuzuka girl nodded fervently. "Yes, Lord Hokage, sir."
"Return to the village and report it to Shikaku."
The four L&I shinobi bowed at the command and left.
To Itachi, Naruto said, "You did great, but I still need you."
The stoic Uchiha smirked fractionally and the deep lines on his face deepened in anticipation of the orders Naruto wanted to give him. "What do you want me to do, Naruto?"
"You'll go with me and Rin to Whirlpool country. Yagura already isn't pulling any punches, so I'd rather stop what he's planning over there before it becomes something we can't control."
At the moment, the war resembled a trying siege against Konoha's walls, where the Mizukage was throwing undead shinobi and bloodline holders at Konoha in hopes of cracking the Leaf's defences, but now that Konoha was settling down after the shock of the Fourth Hokage's return, Yagura and his allies might be ramping up their efforts.
Even as the full picture of the attack was still coming together, Naruto didn't want to take any chances against Yagura.
This was a man that had used a deadly nerve agent to eradicate Hidden Rain and the Akatsuki, and also the same man that didn't mind killing scores of his bloodline holders for his ambitions, Naruto didn't want to wait and find out what was brewing in his mother's home country, not to talk of how the man and his forces had gotten access to the isolated country.
"Go back home and get ready. Meet us at the southern border."
Itachi nodded. "Alright."
And he left.
Returning their attention to Tobirama, they realized that the man was gone.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Logistics & Intelligence Department
ANBU Headquarters
Somewhere Underneath the Forest of Death
"The Kiri ninja Chouza captured killed himself on his way to the Torture & Interrogation department. There was nothing we could have done to prevent it," Tsunade began, speaking with professional impassiveness as she gestured to the corpse laid out on the operating table. The body was naked, besides a white sheet covering his lower body. Naruto hummed reflectively, nodding his head in understanding.
The operating room was sombre, windowless and lit by a single lightbulb.
The only people inside were Tsunade, Naruto and Karin Uzumaki, with two ANBU guarding the outside of the room. Most other military resources were either sent to fend off the aggressors pushing at Konoha's walls or guard the civilians.
Konoha hadn't yet been breached.
But even now, the thud of bombs subtly reverberated to the classified operating room.
Tsunade, wearing a pair of plastic gloves, gently eased open the dead person's mouth, showing Naruto the scorched seal on the person's tongue. Karin stayed five steps from both of her seniors, tipping her eyes down and spying quick upward glances at Naruto, though jerking her purple gaze down when the Hokage briefly looked at her.
"I'm assuming it's some sort of cyanide seal. I can't be certain—"
"The kind of seal doesn't matter at the moment," Naruto interrupted her, wanting to hasten up the meeting; he had an urgent mission after all. He looked away from Karin and said to Tsunade, "You said you found something important."
Tsunade stifled her grumble into a terse, "Yes." The fighting was heating up and the Hokage was needed on the field. She understood her grandson's haste. That didn't mean she liked being bossed around though. She jerked her head for Karin to step forward. "Tell him what you told me."
"Yes, Lady Tsunade," Karin replied, taking two swift steps toward them but faltering. Then she marched around to the other side of the operating table, always keeping her eyes off Naruto. "When I was in Hidden Sound…" she said with a delayed gulp, not wanting to speak the name she hated so much, "Orochimaru," she grated, "had a fascination with the Uzumaki clan and Whirlpool country. He wanted to understand how such a clan could possess so many enviable traits; large chakra reserves, chakra chains, endless knowledge of fuinjutsu, near-eternal youth, vitality, among others."
Naruto crossed his arms and listened.
"But the Uzumaki clan were a private people. They didn't litter any sensitive information outside of their homeland." She touched her chest and said, "He took me from my mother and… killed her…when my mother refused to tell any clan secrets."
Displaced Uzumaki still lingered around the continent, keeping their heads down and staying invisible. Even with astonishingly red hair and sparkling purple eyes, the Uzumaki survivors didn't stand out.
"Using me…Orochimaru was able to access Whirlpool country. He found a way to alter the island's natural defences to allow him to pass through. From what I know, he's only gone there five times."
Naruto shared a look with Tsunade. He asked, "What about the rumours of Uzumaki moving back to Whirlpool country?"
"While we were there, we never saw any other Uzumaki." Karin then quickly said, as if searching for some hope. "It's possible they were in hiding on the island during our visits. They couldn't have had many ways to defend against someone like Orochimaru."
"Did Orochimaru find anything on the island?"
"Yes, he did." Karin chewed on her bottom lip and Naruto narrowed his eyes at her. "I swear, Lord Hokage, I'm not lying—"
Naruto snapped his fingers when he realized that the girl was becoming hysterical. "Tell me what he found, Karin. I'll believe you."
"The first Uzumaki was blessed by Death and cursed by the moon. For betraying the moon, the Shinigami gave the first Uzumaki a mask that allowed them to converse with death itself and learn secrets of the world that would help defend them against the moon's children."
One of those secrets was how to reincarnate those sealed inside the death god's stomach.
Naruto quickly left for Whirlpool country before Yagura could resurrect the Third Hokage, the other holder of the Nine-Tailed beast.
Against his better judgement, he took Rin and a platoon of ninjas with him to Whirlpool country.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
In Grass country
Asuma cut off his supply of chakra to his trench knives and picked up his catatonic girlfriend, speeding away as golden chakra chains, barbed at the sides and deadly sharp at the tip, exploded from the ground and chased after him.
He dipped into a low run and dodged left when a chain nipped at his heel, ducking to his right when another chain missed shredding his ankles, but screeched to a halt when a wall of golden chains burst out of the ground at his front. Asuma barely stopped in time before his face could meet the barbed chains.
He whipped around and Kushina flickered to his front.
The man turned back around in time for Kushina to slam a punch into his shoulder, blasting him through the forest of barbed chains and smacking him into the ground.
All the while, he kept Kurenai out of harm's way, keeping his body between her and the ground.
Although now, he couldn't feel his right shoulder any more. The odd angle his left arm was hanging off his shoulder looked like it had been dislocated by the blow. His jounin vest and shinobi clothes were in tatters, and blood wept from the deep slashes and gouges riddled across his body and face.
His right eye was also gone, cut by one of the chains' barbs.
The man weakly stumbled to his feet, rolling away from an axe kick from the Uzumaki and switching places with a log when another blow tunnelled to the back of his head.
"Where're those reinforcements, Asuma?" Kushina asked with exasperation.
The bloodied man flashed to Kushina's right, without Kurenai in his arms, and cut at her with his right trench knife, whistling with lethal wind chakra. Kushina leaned away, losing a few strands of hair as a result.
She fluidly shifted back from another cut, sweeping around a low kick to her knee and ran her elbow into Asuma's nose, stepping on his foot and tearing an uppercut into his chin. The shadow clone popped on contact with the punch and Kushina was immediately secured with ropes and ninja wire threaded with dozens upon dozens of exploding seal tags. Each tag sizzled dangerously and oozed black ash.
The woman resembled a cocoon of uncountable exploding seal tags and crackling ash.
Kushina beamed, impressed.
Behind her at a distance, Asuma favoured his sprained right foot and did his best to not think about the large cuts on his body, his dislocated left arm or that his right eye was no more. He lit a cigarette, exhaling a lungful of smoke from his nose, and the bombs around Kushina went off.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
The magnitude and numerousness of the explosions threw off Gai and Hizashi.
The two shinobi widened their stance at the tremors that endlessly rippled across the devastated plain. The devastation of the rapid explosions blasted heat around, incinerating grass and turning the soil to ash.
Despite this, a partially formed One-Tailed beast roared. It rose three times higher than the jinchuriki and four times wider, bearing a swollen abdomen and a large lower jaw, with moving seals slithering about its body.
Gaara—straining his sanity to maintain control—poured sand from its body and Kakuzu brought his fire mask to his front to turn the surging sand tsunami to glass, agitatedly exhaling hot white fire through the mask and raising himself higher over the sea of sand on top of a pillar of earth.
Temari and Kankuro were dodging clay bombs sweeping toward them in the form of birds, with Temari manoeuvring her fan to keep them out of the range of the blast and Kankuro sending a puppet closer and closer to Deidara.
Jolted back to his predicament, Gai reared away from a glowing palm to his chest, returning with a swift jumping knee that crashed into Hizashi's chin, though at the expense of being open to a chain of palm strikes to his left leg. The pace at which this happened dizzied the normally sharp taijutsu master.
Hizashi Hyuuga had been hailed as the best practitioner of the Gentle Fist fighting style, standing at the same level as his twin brother and clan head, Hiashi. So much so that Hizashi was reportedly able to reach a fluidity in his movement and strikes, despite the rigidness of the style, that it appeared as if he was deliberately slow in reacting to an attack.
Gai landed heavily on his right leg and whipped around, slamming his numbed left foot into a windy barrier, which thrust Gai away soon after.
The man nimbly backflipped three times, rolling back once when Hizashi thrust two fingers to where his brow was supposed to have been.
I have to open a gate if I want to keep up with this youthful old man, Gai thought with clenched teeth, jerking back upright and backhanding a prodding strike away from his shoulder, though that, in turn, made him lose the feeling of that hand. Taking correction, he smacked a kick into Hizashi's unguarded left ankle, but again he unintentionally allowed his Hyuuga opponent space to blast three palms into his chest, dropping him to his knees with a river of blood pouring out from his mouth.
Gai wheezed, feeling an agonizing rattle in his chest.
Here I go!
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Running as fast as he could, Kakashi peered up at the sudden roar of chakra.
The One Tails erupted far in the distance, puffing out cheeks and spitting down a hail of deadly sharp wind and sand, meanwhile violently thrashing its tail.
This chaos added to the nearly constant thudding of explosions that rocked the earth, setting the sky ablaze and booming shockwaves far and wide. The smell of fire and death permeated the air, and the haze of heat intensified as the Konoha reinforcement ran harder and faster than they had ever run in the direction of the calamities unfolding.
Fire and chakra burned the air.
Then there was the familiar bonfire of chakra Kakashi had only felt once before during a spar with Gai.
"We need to hurry!" Kakashi loudly echoed the thoughts of the team. The Hokage had tasked the reinforcement team to help the Konoha procession from Hidden Chill reach the village alive and intact, even at the risk of drawing in the ninjas they were occupied with. Their numbers were small on purpose.
The reinforcement team dodged around fleeing animals that barrelled from the very direction the Konoha ninjas were heading, weaving through the trees that stubbornly stayed rooted despite the undulating shockwaves and the sweltering heat.
Then suddenly, the trees collapsed inwards and a medical carriage barrelled through, following closely behind Rock Lee and Neij as they led the path by felling trees. Seated behind the horse's reins was Tenten, and on top of the carriage was Ino, Shikamaru and Chouji, holding on for dear life, and running behind the carriage was Kiba and Shino.
Their faces were deathly pale and serious.
So focused on their escape, they didn't notice the Konoha reinforcements.
Yugao fell back and raced after the speeding carriage, yelling to Kakashi and Team Inuzuka—Tsume Inuzuka and the former Sound Four—over the din of fire and fleeing animal life, "I'm right behind you! Go, go, go!"
The other reinforcements left the swordswoman to escort Hinata's medical carriage and the shellshocked genin teams back to the village, continuing their breathless running into the fire.
Authors note
That's that about that.
What are your thoughts on this chapter and the story so far?
Although there will be some slower, calmer moments in the story, from this point till the epilogue it'll be end-to-end action and destruction.
Ya ready?
I'll see you when I see you.
Foy.
